Beatles Can Block Wheelchair’s ‘Ticket to Ride’ in EU Case
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The Beatles’ Apple Corps can block a Dutch wheelchair manufacturer from selling “Beatle” electric mobility aids, a European Union court ruled.
The EU’s general court rejected a lawsuit by You-Q BV that sought to register a trademark for its Beatle wheelchairs. The court said the Beatles name is “still synonymous with youth and a certain counter-culture of the 1960s” and its “very positive image of freedom, youth and mobility” would likely attract people who needed to use mobility aids, according to a statement from the Luxembourg-based tribunal.